JOHN Higgins believes he is finally back to his confident best after producing consistently high-quality snooker to reach the Masters quarter-finals on Wednesday afternoon.

The Wishaw cueman was Scotland’s last man standing at the tournament following Stephen Maguire’s exit earlier in the week and didn’t let his country down – seeing off China’s Liang Wenbo 6-4 at London’s Alexandra Palace.

The two-time Masters champion opened up with a 119 break before compiling two other centuries, one of which saw him pot 13 reds and 13 blacks before running out of position and costing himself a chance to make an eighth maximum 147 break of his career.

Higgins won three ranking events in 2015 – the Welsh Open, Australian Goldfields Open and International Championship – after a barren few years that had many people writing him off as past his prime.

But despite his resurgence, the 40-year-old acknowledges that with Liang playing so well, he did fear a repeat of 12 months ago when he lost 6-4 to Mark Allen despite making three centuries.

“I’m delighted with the way I hit the ball – I was just thinking back to my match with Mark Allen last year and that was a similar standard but I ended up on the losing end,” said Higgins.

“I thought Liang played very well as well – he can look back on the whole game and has probably only missed a couple of balls but lost 6-4. It was a really good, high-quality game to be involved in.

“I don’t think that really sends a message out to the rest of the players though because every game is different.

“It’s just pleasing coming to tournaments and thinking I can go and play well and put up a good performance against the best players.

“I haven’t done that in the last two or three years – I’ve been quite an easy game for most players. It’s good to come and feel confident of doing some damage on the table.”

Higgins will have an opportunity to do some more damage when he faces world champion Stuart Bingham in the last eight on Friday evening.

Bingham has struggled somewhat since winning the world title back in May, not advancing beyond a semi-final this season, with suggestions that he is struggling to balance practice with the off-the-table commitments that come as world champion.

However, he has shown signs of a potential turnaround in recent weeks and Higgins is relishing the occasion.

“Stuart has done ever so well. He’s obviously had a bit of a slow start as a world champion but it should be a great occasion,” added the world No.7.

“He’ll have a lot of family and friends down and it should be a good crowd on Friday night. If you can’t get up for that against the world champion, then you shouldn’t be playing, so I’ll try to play my best.”

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